Exhibit IX: The Draugr’s Toll

Ah… you’ve found it. Not all who pass through this place are meant to reach the shoreline. Fewer still are meant to look upon this. Do you feel it? That subtle pull… not on your hand, but somewhere deeper. As if the tide itself has taken notice of you. That is the nature of this object. It does not sit idly. It waits. It listens. A simple coin, you might think. Blackened. Worn smooth. Stripped of all identity by the patient violence of the sea. But nothing here is ever so innocent. This is not currency as you understand it. It does not buy. It binds. Every mark that should tell its story has been erased. That is deliberate. Names hold power. Origins offer comfort. This… offers neither. Only weight. Only obligation. It comes from waters that do not forgive. There are places in the world where the boundary between the living and the claimed is thin. Where wrecks do not rest, and the dead are not done with their counting. The North Atlantic is one such place. And in those depths, something ancient keeps a ledger. This coin is not a relic. It is a receipt. Look closer, traveller… but do not linger too long. Some things, once acknowledged, begin to acknowledge you in return. And the sea… has a long memory. Best to keep your hands to yourself. We would not want your name… added to the account.